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Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 18.\" without specific prior written permission. 19.\" 20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 30.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 31.\" 32.\" From: @(#)whois.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 33.\" $FreeBSD$ 34.\" 35.Dd January 23, 2006 36.Dt WHOIS 1 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm whois 40.Nd "Internet domain name and network number directory service" 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.Nm 43.Op Fl aAbdfgiIklmQrR6 44.Op Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host 45.Op Fl p Ar port 46.Ar name ... 47.Sh DESCRIPTION 48The 49.Nm 50utility looks up records in the databases maintained by several 51Network Information Centers 52.Pq Tn NICs . 53.Pp 54The options are as follows: 55.Bl -tag -width indent 56.It Fl a 57Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers 58.Pq Tn ARIN 59database. 60It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by 61.Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC , 62nor by 63.Tn RIPE . 64.Pp 65(Hint: All point of contact handles in the 66.Tn ARIN 67whois database end with 68.Qq Li -ARIN . ) 69.Pp 70.It Fl A 71Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center 72.Pq Tn APNIC 73database. 74It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia, 75New Zealand, and the Pacific islands. 76.It Fl b 77Use the Network Abuse Clearinghouse database. 78It contains addresses to which network abuse should be reported, 79indexed by domain name. 80.It Fl c Ar country-code 81This is the equivalent of using the 82.Fl h 83option with an argument of 84.Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net . 85.It Fl d 86Use the US Department of Defense 87database. 88It contains points of contact for subdomains of 89.Pa .MIL . 90.It Fl f 91Use the African Network Information Centre 92.Pq Tn AfriNIC 93database. 94It contains network numbers used in Africa and the islands of the 95western Indian Ocean. 96.It Fl g 97Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of 98contact for subdomains of 99.Pa .GOV . 100.It Fl h Ar host 101Use the specified host instead of the default variant. 102Either a host name or an IP address may be specified. 103.Pp 104By default 105.Nm 106constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain 107.Pq Tn TLD 108of the supplied (single) argument, and appending 109.Qq Li .whois-servers.net . 110This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected 111automatically for a large number of 112.Tn TLDs . 113.Pp 114In the event that an IP 115address is specified, the whois server will default to the American 116Registry for Internet Numbers 117.Pq Tn ARIN . 118If a query to 119.Tn ARIN 120references 121.Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC , 122or 123.Tn RIPE , 124that server will be queried also, provided that the 125.Fl Q 126option is not specified. 127.Pp 128If the query is not a domain name or IP address, 129.Nm 130will fall back to 131.Pa whois.crsnic.net . 132.It Fl i 133Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers 134.Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com 135database. 136It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of 137.Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG 138and 139.Pa .EDU 140domains. 141.Pp 142.Sy NOTE ! 143The registration of these domains is now done by a number of 144independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information 145on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc. 146Also, note that the 147.Tn InterNIC 148database 149.Pq Pa whois.internic.net 150is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc. 151For details, see 152.Pa http://www.internic.net/ . 153.Pp 154(Hint: Contact information, identified by the term 155.Em handle , 156can be looked up by prefixing 157.Qq Li "handle " 158to the 159.Tn NIC 160handle in the query.) 161.It Fl I 162Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority 163.Pq Tn IANA 164database. 165It contains network information for top-level domains. 166.It Fl k 167Use the National Internet Development Agency of Korea's 168.Pq Tn KRNIC 169database. 170It contains network numbers and domain contact information 171for Korea. 172.It Fl l 173Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry 174.Pq Tn LACNIC 175database. 176It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the 177Caribbean. 178.It Fl m 179Use the Route Arbiter Database 180.Pq Tn RADB 181database. 182It contains route policy specifications for a large 183number of operators' networks. 184.It Fl p Ar port 185Connect to the whois server on 186.Ar port . 187If this option is not specified, 188.Nm 189defaults to port 43. 190.It Fl Q 191Do a quick lookup. 192This means that 193.Nm 194will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois 195server (if one is listed). 196This option has no effect when combined with any other options. 197.It Fl r 198Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens 199.Pq Tn RIPE 200database. 201It contains network numbers and domain contact information 202for Europe. 203.It Fl R 204Use the Russia Network Information Center 205.Pq Tn RIPN 206database. 207It contains network numbers and domain contact information 208for subdomains of 209.Pa .RU . 210This option is deprecated; use the 211.Fl c 212option with an argument of 213.Qq Li RU 214instead. 215.It Fl 6 216Use the IPv6 Resource Center 217.Pq Tn 6bone 218database. 219It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network. 220.El 221.Pp 222The operands specified to 223.Nm 224are treated independently and may be used 225as queries on different whois servers. 226.Sh EXAMPLES 227Most types of data, such as domain names and 228.Tn IP 229addresses, can be used as arguments to 230.Nm 231without any options, and 232.Nm 233will choose the correct whois server to query. 234Some exceptions, where 235.Nm 236will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below. 237.Pp 238To obtain contact information about an 239administrator located in the Russian 240.Tn TLD 241domain 242.Qq Li RU , 243use the 244.Fl c 245option as shown in the following example, where 246.Ar CONTACT-ID 247is substituted with the actual contact identifier. 248.Pp 249.Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID" 250.Pp 251(Note: This example is specific to the 252.Tn TLD 253.Qq Li RU , 254but other 255.Tn TLDs 256can be queried by using a similar syntax.) 257.Pp 258The following example demonstrates how to obtain information about an 259.Tn IPv6 260address or hostname using the 261.Fl 6 262option, which directs the query to 263.Tn 6bone . 264.Pp 265.Dl "whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address" 266.Pp 267The following example demonstrates how to query 268a whois server using a non-standard port, where 269.Dq Li query-data 270is the query to be sent to 271.Dq Li whois.example.com 272on port 273.Dq Li rwhois 274(written numerically as 4321). 275.Pp 276.Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data" 277.Sh SEE ALSO 278.Rs 279.%A Ken Harrenstien 280.%A Vic White 281.%T NICNAME/WHOIS 282.%D 1 March 1982 283.%O RFC 812 284.Re 285.Sh HISTORY 286The 287.Nm 288command appeared in 289.Bx 4.3 . 290